The significance of the shift from Europe to the Pacific is overrated, since Europe is much richer and more important to the American economy than China or any other Asian nation other than Japan. The US could in fact do well with a movement toward isolationism

Some experts believe North Korea's posturing is still another ploy to obtain foreign aid, and that is certainly one of the goals. But at the same time, this provocative series of events is drawing more international attention than previous inflammatory moments

The present crisis with North Korea offers us a glimpse of what, and what not, to expect should Iran get the bomb. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would gain the attention currently being paid to Kim Jong-un -- similarly not otherwise earned by his nation's economy or cultural influence

The Asian 'little Tigers' -- Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Macau -- have small families. In one ranking of total fertility rates, these places are at the bottom, with rates of 1.25 or below. The consequences of this are stark

The news from North Korea has of late been of the frightening variety. What the North Korean leadership is hoping to achieve by its belligerence is anyone's guess, but the aggressive American response has only escalated tension

It is really not so odd that we would find Dennis Rodman partying heartily with North Korea's Kim Jong Un. After all, they have so much in common. They both love basketball, self-promotion and keeping the world guessing about their sanity

Chinaâ€™s relations with North Korea have deteriorated, and could further worsen should the North carry out its nuclear test. It is believed China would respond to a third nuclear test with economic, political and military measures

Determination can move mountains -- and help erase a few records. That perhaps is the motto of South Korean archer, Im Dong-hyun, who eclipsed his 72-arrow world record at the hallowed Lord's cricket ground turf with a score of 699

Following the outrage over the London Olympic Games organizers unfurling South Korea's flag instead of the communist North's before a women's soccer match, IOC president Jacques Rogge and LOGOC officials tender apology

Next year is the 60th anniversary of the armistice that ended the hot war but left the Korean peninsula technically and legally still at war. A former missionary reflects on the possibility for peace on the Korean peninsula

All seems placid in the Far East. There is, of course, the lunatic regime of North Korea. However ... China seems content with its political menu of stability, reassurance and an ever-growing economy. Japan has ceded its place as No. 2 in the world economy to China, and now seeks to reconcile its impressive industrial base. Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan push on in becoming more rich

In the wake of the sinking of the Cheonan - South Korea's corvette in March 2010 with the loss of 46 lives - and the dramatic, surprise revelations in November of a new and massive North Korean uranium enrichment centrifuge facility, international opinion was already beginning to worry about the intentions of the Kim Jong-il administration.

No other country presents so serious a problem for the world today, and no other problem seems as insoluble: Right now, North Korea's malign behavior could conceivably draw the United States into still another war. Most everyone considers North Korea mercurial, unpredictable. But in fact, its behavior usually follows a consistent pattern

Every time I visit South Korea, I am struck by two things, vastly in contrast. The first is its prosperity and the people's very clear economic purpose to drive forward to an even better life. The second is its strategic and military insecurity, its acute sense of precariousness, its daily awareness that military power counts

The Korean Peninsula remains volatile. The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction by North Korea, the modernization of conventional forces across the region, and nascent great-power rivalries highlight the endemic security dilemmas that plague this part of Asia.

Foreigners living in and visiting North Korea can now access Twitter, Facebook, and other social media on their mobile phones, providing what could be an unprecedented, real-time view of the notoriously isolated country

North Korea has been using the threat of tests and the tests themselves as weapons against its neighbors and the United States for years. And doing it successfully. So what appears absurd on the surface quite obviously isn't. On the contrary, it has proved to be a very effective maneuver

The conflict in the South China Sea may be long running, but there are several reasons why it has become much more dangerous. There can be little doubt that President Obama in his second term will find the South China Sea one of the hottest issues in East Asia

North Korea's recent failed launch of a rocket catapulted the isolated country back onto the global agenda. While questions remain over the exact timing and motivation for the launch, it is likely to test the patience of China

Attempts at fostering greater regional cooperation across Northeast Asia are likely to remain compromised by entrenched political elites and nationalist sentiment for the foreseeable future. This suggests that the 'idea' of regional cooperation is more viable than the development of working institutions

Every president since JFK has tried to learn from what happened back then. Today, it can help policymakers understand what to do -- and what not to do -- about Iran, North Korea, China, and presidential decision-making in general

While the details are unclear, China has reason to invest in Rason. North Korea is eager to accept the investment because economic uncertainty during a time of transition could be catastrophic for the new regime

Is there any greater nuclear threat to the world than North Korea? With a dozen nuclear weapons and a vile record of proliferation, this rogue state and its lunatic leader can be relied upon for just one thing: making terrible trouble for its neighbors and everyone else

South Korea's announcement that it will ban all school paper textbooks and replace them with electronic tablets by 2014 should ring alarm bells in the United States, Europe and Latin America -- many of our children run the risk of being left even farther behind their digital-savvy Asian counterparts

Latin America should take a close look at the latest U.S. technological innovation figures: They show that, despite signs of progress in several countries, the gap between Asian and Latin American countries keeps widening

Despite the predictions of many obituary writers, North Korea is still around. It was supposed to collapse with the Eastern European communist regimes, but it didn't. It was supposed to crumble during the great famine of the mid-1990s, but it didn't. Hard-line policies of the Bush administration were supposed to do the trick, but they didn't